Saudi Aramco’s energy industrial city investment seen at SAR16.5 billion

March 8, 2017 3:20 pm

State-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco sees investment in a new energy industrial city in Saudi Arabia to be 16.5 billion riyals ($4.4 billion), a senior Aramco official said on Tuesday.

Close to Abqaiq in eastern Saudi Arabia, the city will develop energy-related industries.

Speaking at a conference in Bahrain, Abdulaziz Al Abdulkarim, vice president for procurement and supply chain management, also said investment in the huge ship repair and shipbuilding complex Ras al-Khair would be 21.8 billion riyals.

Saudi officials have said the King Salman International Complex for Maritime Industries and Services, being developed by Saudi Aramco and foreign partners, would cost more than $5 billion.

Both projects will help create thousands of jobs, a key part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, an economic reform programme aimed at diversifying the economy beyond reliance on oil.

Abdulkarim is overseeing a Saudi Aramco initiative known as In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) to double the percentage of locally produced energy-related goods and services to 70 percent of the total spent by 2021.

As part of these efforts, U.S.-listed Rowan Companies and Nabors Industries are among companies that announced plans to boost manufacturing in Saudi Arabia in joint ventures with Saudi Aramco.

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